That day is not this day

My restless heart + Creamy chicken and potato soup with homemade flour tortillas or buttermilk biscuits + Orange poppy seed cake + NEW Zoom Cooking Classes!

Welcome to Let’s Get Lost! I’m Rebecca, a recipe developer, food photographer, passionate people watcher, and chaser of new experiences. You might know me from my recipe websites, Of Batter and Dough and A Little and A Lot.

My husband and I are nomads without a home base but with many modes of transportation, namely an RV, a motorcycle, and a sailboat. I write recipes and stories for curious people who believe experiences are more important than things and who want more adventure.

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I was going to start this newsletter out with the exact number of places we’ve lived since moving into our RV almost 6 years ago, but I got bored with the whole project and gave up. I believe the number is roughly 150.

One hundred and fifty different places that we’ve called home.

Steve and I were born in Colorado and until we sold our home in 2020 to start traveling full time, we’d never lived outside the state. We’d traveled outside the state, but coming back to Colorado always felt like coming home.

I thought that Colorado would always feel like home. I thought that when we tired of nomadic life, we’d want to come back home, to Colorado.

What a surprise then to discover that my sense of home wasn’t attached to the state at all. Until we moved into our RV, I thought home was a geographical position. It turns out home = Steve + the four wall in which we live. It doesn’t actually matter where those 4 walls are.

This is honestly my favorite part of RV life. We are constantly traveling to different places AND always home. I have felt perfectly at home in 30 different states, in tiny towns and big cities, in the middle of nowhere, and even in rest stop parking lots. No matter where we are, once I step inside, I am home.

My favorite spot on the couch, where in the colder months I spend every morning snuggled under one of the quilts my mom made for me.

One thing that is starting to change is the length of time we stay in one place. For the first couple of years, staying anywhere for a month felt like an eternity. Steve would start to get restless after 3 weeks and we had a couple of years where we moved consistently every other weekend.

Since 2020, we’ve averaged around 25 different locations per year. This year, the number has shrunk to 8.

There are some big advantages to staying on one place for a long time. (I am aware of how subjective that is. For many, long time means years. For us, it means months.)

When we stick around for a while, we have a lot more time to explore the area widely. It also means we have more time to rest. If we only have one weekend in a place, I feel an urgency to pack as much into it as possible. When we have eight weekends in one place, a lazy Sunday where we never leave the RV no longer feels like a wasted opportunity.

And still, after a long stretch in one place, we feel restless. The past two months in Colorado were filled with our favorite people. We relished every moment spent with our daughters and got to do some really fun things.

But, even though I’m writing this on Thursday, I can tell you with 100% certainty that when this is published on Saturday I will be happy as a clam to be back on the road. (Question: Are clams happy?)

Steve bought his first motorcycle in 2013 and once I mustered up the courage to hop on the back I was filled with an overwhelming desire to just keep going. We would take off on the bike for an evening and on the way home I would feel a desperate kind of restlessness to just keep riding and riding and riding. I didn’t care where we went, I just wanted to go.

This is still how I feel after we’ve been in one place for a while. It doesn’t matter how much I love the place or how much fun we’ve had there. At some point, I want to move on.

I don’t know where this restlessness comes from. It feels engrained in my bones.

I look at those with roots that have grown deep into a place, their homes filled with generations of treasures, and strong local connections nurtured with years of devotion, and my heart swells with the beauty of it.

I also feel a little bit allergic to it. I have a shallow root system that wants to spread out instead of digging deep. Every cell of my being seems eager to abandon the familiar for the promise of whatever is around the next corner.

And so we keep moving. I wonder sometimes if my thirst for new places can be quenched? If one day, Steve and I will feel that we’ve seen enough, done enough, experienced enough new places. If that hunger for travel will subside and we will feel satisfied to stay in one place.

Maybe. But that day is not this day.

See you in Arizona, my friends.

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This week’s menu

I’m resurrecting a recipe from the very first issue of this newsletter because it’s exactly what I want to eat this week, and I suspect I’m not alone. Creamy Chicken and Potato Soup is a “no recipe required” kind of meal, which means it’s more of a formula than a recipe. It’s easy to make as much or as little as you like and adjust it to your personal tastes and preferences.

Creamy Chicken and Potato Soup with Chilies and Cheese

My favorite time to make this soup is on a Friday night when we are both worn out from the week and want nothing more than to snuggle up on the couch with a bowl of something warm and delicious to watch movies.

If you have some cooked chicken, the soup takes very little time to throw together. And, if you don’t have any pre-cooked chicken, you’ll find a super easy method for cooking chicken right below this recipe.

Ingredients:

• Onion - yellow, red, or white OR a couple of shallots

• Vegetable oil

• Garlic - one clove, or 10, it’s up to you!

• 2 or 3 red bell peppers (or any color bell pepper), roughly chopped

• Potatoes (I like to use Yukon gold/ yellow potatoes)

• A can or two of diced green chilies

• Any kind of broth or stock or Better than Bouillon mixed with water

• Sour cream

• Diced or shredded cooked chicken

• Fresh oregano

• Grated cheddar cheese (or any kind of cheese)

• Aleppo pepper oil or your favorite hot sauce (optional)

1. Chop the onions and add them to a large saucepan along with a couple tablespoons of oil. Cook over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the garlic and bell pepper and cook for another minute or two then add the potatoes, green chilies, and enough broth to cover the potatoes.

2. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender. Use a ladle or a measuring cup to remove about a cup of the broth and pour it into a bowl. Stir in about a cup of sour cream then pour the mixture back into the soup.

3. Stir in the cooked chicken and oregano, then the grated cheddar and Aleppo pepper oil or hot sauce. Taste and add as much salt as you like.

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A super easy method for cooking chicken

Having some cooked chicken in the refrigerator is an easy way to add protein to soup, salad, sandwiches, or other quick meals. And, I know that you can pick up a rotisserie chicken or a package of pre-cooked shredded chicken at nearly every supermarket. But honestly, this super simple method only takes a few minutes and will give you perfectly cooked, flavorful chicken without any of the additives that are often included in grocery store chicken.

1. Add some boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs to a saucepan.

2. Pour in about a cup of soy sauce plus enough water to cover the chicken. If you’re gluten intolerant, coconut aminos will work just as well. Or, use broth, stock, or Better than Bouillon mixed with water. The important thing is to submerge the chicken in a flavorful, salty liquid. If the liquid you are using isn’t salty, add enough salt to make it taste as salty as sea water. The chicken will not absorb all of the salt - but using salty liquid is essential to flavoring the meat from the inside out.

3. Add more flavoring if you like. I usually peel a knob of ginger that’s roughly 3 inches long and dump it into the pan along with 5 or 6 cloves of peeled garlic that I’ve chopped in half. You can also add fresh or dried herbs and/or a few strips of lemon peel. Or, add nothing at all and just let the salty liquid flavor the chicken.

4. Set the pan over medium high heat. When it begins to boil, remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let it sit for at least 20 minutes and up to an hour.

5. Remove the chicken from the liquid, chop or shred, and store it in a covered container in the refrigerator.

That’s it. I usually cook some chicken this way after returning from a grocery store run. It takes about 5 minutes to get the chicken cooking. By the time I’ve unpacked the rest of the groceries the chicken is done cooking and ready to be refrigerated.

A few of my favorite ways to use pre-cooked chicken:

• Double crust chicken pot pie

• 30-minute chicken soup

• Chicken enchiladas verdes

• Chicken lettuce wraps

• Chicken tortilla soup

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Homemade Flour Tortillas Made with Butter!

Soft, warm homemade tortillas are one of the best things in the whole wide world. Combine that with how easy they are to make and flour tortillas from scratch becomes one of the few life decisions for which there can be no regrets.

Unless you eat them all yourself. Even then. Probably worth it.

This all-butter recipe is so easy and delicious, you may never buy tortillas again.

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Buttermilk Biscuits

If you’re craving fluffy, tender buttermilk biscuits with hundreds of flaky, buttery layers, stop right here.

Here’s how to make homemade buttermilk biscuits that are soft on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside, and rise to impressive heights with layer after delicious layer.

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Orange Poppy Seed Cake

This is the kind of cake that stretches the boundaries of just how moist a cake can be. Just like this orange drizzle cake and this elderflower lemon cake, this cake includes actual fruit - a couple of whole oranges are mixed right into the batter along with the poppy seeds.

Including whole fruit in the batter allowed me to use less sugar because the fruit is helping to do sugar’s job: it adds flavor, locks in moisture, and creates a soft and tender texture. Less sugar means the cake is not overly sweet so you can drench it in citrus syrup (so YUM) with abandon and no concern for it becoming cloying.

And, of course, you can frost this cake with whatever buttercream you like, or serve it naked, adorned with nothing but that glistening citrus glaze. But I do hope you try it with the mascarpone frosting because its light, creamy, not-too-sweet consistency really is the perfect complement to the syrup drenched cake.

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Recipe Writing Workshop!

If you’re interested in what it takes to write a good recipe, join me and Betty Williams on Friday January 23 for a recipe writing workshop.

This is a practical workshop where we’ll break down what actually makes a recipe successful on the page. We’ll discuss how to structure ingredients and instructions, how to write effective headnotes, and where to place substitutions, variations, and helpful notes.

Plus, there will be a live recipe critique, an open Q&A, and a book giveaway!

This workshop is hosted by Kelsey Erin Shipman and Hannah Howard for their Write Up Community, but is open and free for everyone! Please join us!

The workshop is on Friday, January 23, from 9:00 am to 10:30 am U.S. Pacific time.

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Recommended reading

January 7, 2026

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This newsletter would not exist if not for the members of The Lost Supper Club, who show their support with a paid subscription thus ensuring that the vast majority of readers can keep reading this newsletter for free. As a thank you, I try to provide those paid subscribers with some cool stuff, including three free cookbooks! Find out more about becoming a member of the Lost Supper Club.

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NEW! Live Cook-Along Classes Over Zoom

Last year I taught a series of classes over Substack LIVE and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. More that that, I was pleased as punch to see so many of YOU join me for the classes and watch the replays. (Question: is punch pleased?)

However, the limitation of teaching a class over Substack LIVE is that you can see me but I can’t see you. You can type things into the chat, but we can’t actually talk to one another.

So, in addition to classes over Substack LIVE, this year I’ll be doing a once-a-month cooking class over Zoom that’s just for members of the Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers). These will be cook-along classes, where we’ll make something together, and get to interact face to face! Sometimes it will be just me, and sometimes we’ll have another guest chef joining us.

And at the beginning of the class, I’ll take you on a short little tour of where we are in the world.

The first class will be on Wednesday, January 28 and here’s what’s on the menu:

Chimichurri Steak Fries and Apple Cobbler

• We’ll learn how to reverse sear a steak so you get the perfect temperature every time AND a gorgeous crust on the outside

• How to make chimichurri sauce (you’ll want to put it on everything!)

• How to make a super quick and easy garlic aioli

• How to make my favorite cobbler topping. For this class, we’ll cook it over apples, but we’ll also talk about how you can use it to make any kind of fruit cobbler you like.

We’ll make all of this together in an hour and have way more fun doing it than we would if we were cooking dinner by ourselves.

Register with the link below. I’ll send out the recipes and a shopping list next week!

*Please register with the email you used to subscribe to this newsletter! I’ll send the recipes and shopping list to that email address next week.

Please let me know if you have any questions by sending a direct message over Substack or an email: rebecca@rebeccablackwell.com

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